View full sizeBruce Ely / The OregonianPortland Police Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, and Chief Mike Reese, left, team up while making a call to Portland Rescue Mission.

"We're engaged in a pretty serious budget reduction," Police Chief Mike Reese said. "We're restricting overtime, and holding off buying anything short of tires for our cars and flares for the trunks."

When Mike Kuykendall, the bureau's new civilian director of services who oversees the fiscal, records and training divisions, began his job at eight weeks ago, he and staff began examining the council-approved budget for the bureau and discovered the gap.

What was not factored into the $158 million budget was an estimated $200,000 in charges for unemployment benefits the bureau would have to pick up after it laid off 24 non-sworn civilians.

"That I think is something we probably should have been on top of, and we weren't," said Catherine Reiland, the bureau's fiscal manager.

The bureau overestimated another $1.3 million in reimbursement from the Portland Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund for new hires and officers who return to work on light-duty pay, and underbudgeted by about $400,000 the materials and services needed for the bureau's photo radar program, Reiland said.

The chief says he wants each division commander to control his or her unit's budget.

Any overtime operation, for example, must be approved by a commander. While court duty requires overtime, the bureau is working to adjust training classes to officers shifts to avoid overtime costs.

Traffic Capt. Todd Wyatt says it has come down to eliminating unneeded phone lines, reducing the number of supervisors in the records division from four to three and possibly curtailing the number of officers assigned to special events, such as the Portland Marathon.

Wyatt says the question of the day is: "Can we get by with less?"

"We must ensure that we are using the resources we do have correctly, and be good stewards of the public's dollars," the chief said in a message to the bureau. "We must stay the course as I don't see the city's financial situation changing any time soon."

The bureau is keeping vacant officers' positions that opened up since last spring due to retirements, terminations or resignations. "Personnel is the biggest area where we can make up for any risks in the budget," Reiland said.

The bureau has identified about $2 million in savings from staff vacancies, overtime and materials and services, said Andrew Scott, city financial planning manager.

"Police are being diligent in terms of identifying potential risks and also putting potential solutions on the table to ensure that they end the year within budget," Scott said.

Kuykendall said he hopes the bureau will be ready to hire again in January because the bureau is expecting a large wave of retirements by July 2011.